So you got one of those never have to set it alarm clocks with the dead battery too?

Mine self adjusts for Daylight Savings and Standard time. Which is nice if you have it on the wrong date so it adjusts after you adjust and then everybody is up an hour earlier than they need to be. But of course it takes at least 30 minutes to figure out you’re up early because the coffee hasn’t kicked in.

Isn’t it obvious? It’s one of those plots from the scientists. They’re gonna give you some extra medication, which will make you sleep until you hear the particular frequency emitted by this alarm clock, which will be set to 50 years in the future. The point of the experiment is to provide future generations with a walking, talking (albeit somewhat confused) person from our generation, whose memory hasn’t deteriorated yet, and who can tell everyone all about everything that was happening and exactly what we thought about it.
Don’t worry, you’re not the only one, there’s a whole slew of unsuspecting others also soon to undergo the same process.
Blame Victor, he’s the one who consented to it all.

Some alarm clocks have a button that you can roll over and hit to see the date when you wake up. It’s probably that. Now that I think about it I need that option on my alarm clock because I keep missing days. All the alien abductions get me confused about what day it is when I wake up in the morning.

Don’t tell me you’ve never woken up in the middle of being seriously down with a disease and wondered what century, continent, and state of consciousness this actually is. Apparently certain substances will induce the same confusion, but I wouldn’t know anything about that.

IDK, I’m “stuck” in dreamland after all the Dr. Who comments. Currently, I have the 10th and 11th Doctors on each side of me. It’s annoying and erotic and thrilling Tardis ride. [sets the alarm clock app on my iPhone so I won’t be disturbed during this time] Allons-y! 😀

I’m curious to know why it’s important that the alarm clock tells you the date in the first place? I unplug all devices with extraneous light and date fields. It saves having to wear tinfoil hats all the time;the only object in our house wearing tinfoil is the couch, thank you very much.

Ahhh…I need to get this clock for my husband. I have often wondered if he could sleep for years at a time. Might I also say, I am impressed you still have an alarm clock. My kids function as mine, and my cell phone is my back up. Just in case they sleep in…Yeah right 🙂

Fine. I’ll say it. I’m a dumbass and can never remember what the year is. I’m still saying it’s 2009. Maybe if my radio told me the year every morning, I’d stop embarrassing myself by laughing when I see “2013” written on things because I think it’s a joke.

I think alarm clocks in general are too complicated. Especially for something that, when it goes off, you despise and want to throw through the window and pray a giant flying squirrel carries off to giant flying squirrel land to disassemble and use for giant flying squirrel arts and crafts projects.

Oops, someone sold you that one without the proper authorization. We call that one our “Looper” model. If you should meet yourself at a diner sometime next week – well, let’s just say you have my condolences.

It’s conspiracy by the Digital Clock Manufacturing Mafia. Their reasons are unclear, but I think it has something to do with bringing back Twinkies. Or perhaps some marketing wonk figured they’d sell more digital clocks if they had a “year” setting on them. Either way, I do wish they’d bring back Twinkies

You should write a letter to the manufacturer asking them exactly what the FUCK the year button is for. Make is sound like you have narcolepsy and think they are making fun of your condition by putting that feature on your alarm clock. Ask them for remuneration for emotional damages. Quit job and sleep for a year, just to show those fuckers who’s boss.

It is so you can set the time, day, month and year of your destination. Then, with your Mr. Fusion fully charged, one you have 1.21 gigawatts of power and are traveling at 88 miles per hour, you can take that time jump. Oh, but it will only be in a dream

I admit I blinked when I read that. I haven’t the faintest idea what a year-button is doing on an alarm clock, unless it is for manually setting the year, which really doesn’t make sense.

How long does this clock believe it’ll live and be in use? They really shouldn’t make these types of clocks. It isn’t healthy for them. They probably end up as megalomaniacal tyrants. They will be opt to start ringing before the agreed-upon tiime. So friggin’ annoying! They’ll probably get moody and refuse to ring on time as well, nasty buggers. …actually, there is a lot of time involved in this. You know, The Doctor probably IS behind. We should ask him.

Our microwave insists we put in the full date (mm/dd/yyyy) whenever the power has gone out before it allows us to use it again. I’ve often wondered why the microwave needs to know the date — it must be related to your alarm clock.

The year button it there to set the year so that (in conjunction with the set month and day on the calendar) your clock’s programming can accurately select the day of the week for you (in lieu of you actually having a day of the week button) without you having to remember to adjust it manually for leap years.

That’s so you can roll the year back to the 70s, and we’ll have a space program again. Or an ozone layer again. Or people who can think, because St. Ronnie of Alzheimers hasn’t been crowned KingPopeZombieForever yet. Eleventy.

I’m glad so many people pointed out it was for daylight savings time. Since I live in Arizona where we don’t do that nonsense I’d hate to have an alarm clock that randomly changes time twice a year. I’ll be sure to not get that model if I ever need a new clock.

I am loving all the comments. You are all very creative and funny people! I think that it is for those of us who constantly feel like we are a couple years behind everyone else! It’s 2013 people!!! What happened?!

I believe this post (and all its subsequent Who references) is to blame. for last night I had a dream that you and i were shopping in Hawaii (your poor husband never stood a chance) we came across John Barrowman who lovingly agreed to return the next day in full Captain Jack uniform if one of us (you) agreed to faint so he could rescue the damsel in distress. but last minute you (and i as your backup) couldn’t do it so Victor stepped in so John would still come, and John laid a big wet one right on him. then you took a picture and sent it to Will Wheaton and bought a shirt with the My Drunk Kitchen logo. and then i woke p and wrote this because i thought you needed to know.

Thus far, I have resisted but you will eventually peer pressure me via the internets into watching Doctor Who, at which point I am sure to become addicted. I already blame you for this so I suppose I should go ahead and start watching.

Many electronic clocks have a ‘week-day only’ alarm feature. This as well as knowing whether to have a Leap day is more than enough reason to need to know the year. You could set the Day of Week and have it cycle the 7 days, but if you set the date including year, almost everything along those lines can be calculated.

Too many buttons. We have the same one and I’m not allowed to sleep next to the clock anymore due to my inability to hit snooze without hitting 5 other buttons first and ultimately turning the f*ing thing off altogether.

And to Think… someone designed it that way. I mean there were a bunch of geeky people in a room, designing this AWESOME piece of engineering and then one looks to another and says…. I wonder what people would think if we put a year button!!

The number of you people who can wake up to a cell phone alarm is just stunning to me. I could sleep through my house being hit by a car. I still use a very loud and very obnoxious alarm clock because I’m a deep sleeper. Also, I take my anxiety meds before bed so that probably has something to do with it…

It has a time zone button because not all time zones change daylight savings time on the same day.
Until recently there was a corner of Illinois that NEVER changed daylight savings time. Made for some complicated programming on electronics, may I add.

I think you have the Limited Edition Disney Princess “Sleeping Beauty Awakening System” that includes a year button in case the Handsome Prince is too inbred to make his way through the woods or survive the battle with the early on set menopausal dragon to kiss you awake in time for you to enjoy what’s left of your thirties.

I have this exact same alarm clock and the reason is actually much simpler than everyone else says: This clock supports alarms that only go off M-F or only on the weekends. In order to do that, it has to know the date so it knows what day of the week it is.

I’m attempting to de-lurk and this is the first time I have commented on a website (yes, I know how that sounds, but it’s true). First, let me just say that I thoroughly enjoy your work. I am currently reading your book and it is hillarible. Secondly, (and I know this comment is totally unrelated to your post) having seen photos of Ron Weasely and Ermione Granger (and having laughed heartily at both), I (and my sister) feel compelled to ask (please forgive me if you have heard this before-I only recently began reading your blog), have you considered creating Harry Otter, or Vole(or Mole)demort? Perhaps Drakeo Malfoy or Professor McGonagull? Again, I apologize if you have heard these before, but if you feel the need to further your collection of life-challenged family members, I certainly will not try to stop you. I would also be willing to contribute towards this effort. Thank you again for being awesome.
P.S. I have used an inordinate amount of parentheses. I don’t know if I should apologize for that or not.

i have that same clock and here’s the deal. it’s a SELF-ADJUSTING clock (ironically for someone – me – who is not very self-adjusted). shouldn’t it know what year it is? and, actually, how long i’m going to sleep??? oh, and mine broke. thanks, self-adjusting clock. your breaking just made ME less adjusted.

My alarm clock wants to know what the date is so it can work out which day of the week it is, which is information it needs to do its snazzy functions of only going off on weekdays, or weekends or going off at different times on different days of the week. As it doesn’t adjust itself for daylight saving, I have yet to work out why it doesn’t just ask me to set which day of the week it currently is, instead of making me set the date and then wasting a load of its processing power and memory working out if today is Saturday or not. I’m probably missing something.

I’ve been doing pretty much nothing but sleeping for the last nine months I usually don’t know the date and recently since I slept threw Christmas and NYE I pretty much still sign things 2012 a year button on my alarm clock would come in handy.

I am also on a medication where one of the side effects is memory loss and word loss… I laughed at this when I first saw it thought how bad can it be? Yeah they call it dopomax for a reason! I have literally walked away from people because I have forgotten I was talking to them at all or I’ve forgotten it was my turn to talk or in the middle of a sentence the word the just gets removed frommy vocabulary and I’m stuck there thinking I know I know the word it’s a three letter word for and then force the person with me into a game of sarades they never wanted to play in the first place just to figure out the word the. So a year button might come in handy. Btw I’m writing this from my bed.